Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I spent most of Friday helping out on prepoll in the Victorian state election, but I was pleased to take a brief break to attend the Christmas celebrations for the Bubup Wilam early childcare centre. The Bubup Wilam early childcare centre is an Aboriginal community controlled early childhood education centre which has been a fantastic facility, achieving great results and engaging 70 families in my electorate and around it.

It was fantastic to be at Funfields in Whittlesea on a beautiful Melbourne spring, or summer, day to share in the celebration of the achievements of the year. I was pleased to be welcomed there by Lisa Thorpe, the CEO, and to share in the occasion with Bronwyn Halfpenny, the state member for Thomastown, as well representatives of the City of Whittlesea and the state government. It was terrific to speak to parents about the difference this centre is making to their families, their children and their family lives more broadly. It was fantastic also to speak to educators, including young Aboriginal women like Jedda, who feels so thrilled that she can contribute back, having gone to university, to her community in which she lives.

The election of a state Labor government in Victoria brings heart and hope to Bubup Wilam, as they can see some support that has been missing since the cessation of the national partnership. But there is still great concern in the community that this wonderful facility, which is delivering fantastic results for the local Aboriginal community in Melbourne's north, is under threat because the Abbott government does not put its money where its mouth is in terms of its commitment to meeting school attendance goals in closing the gap. This is a fight that will continue, and I am proud to stand with Bubup Wilam and its community.